Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in my studio with two fellow pastel artists and decided to do another “finger painting” from the Oregon coast. I thought I had used the same pastels that I used in the first one, but was surprised at how light this one came out. In this one, there are two small figures at the point of a large triangle, created by the fog bank and the water on the sand. I loved this! Did the figures very quickly with hard pastels and didn’t belabor them. It was fun to do another of these paintings–they seem to be very popular on Facebook! But it’s not the way I’d want to work. I found that after I’d smudged several layers in the sky, it was piling up and not working as well. The final layers of the fog were not smudged at all. I used my Blue Earth pastels for much of the fog and Giraults for the sand. (My husband told me that if I practiced doing the figures, some day I’d be able to make them really big!!!)
Lifting Fog Bank, 24″ x 18″, Wallis Museum Grade
Hi Jean,
I have seen similar settings along the coast of Maine during Summer escapades. I will try to bring it to life.
Question: I know this is a ‘stupid’ question, but when you say you used hard pastels are referring to ‘craipais’ (Sp) (oil crayons) and/or pastel pencils? I haven’t seen you book yet but I’m sure this may be covered within the covers.
Sorry to bother you,
Thanx,
Donny
Donny, there are two kinds of art media called “pastel”. Soft pastel, which is what I use, comes in a variety of hardnesses. The most common hard pastel stick is NuPastel. Oil pastels, such as Craypas, are a completely different medium. They can’t be used with soft pastel. Soft pastel is made up of pure pigment and a binder (no oil). The more binder, the harder the pastel, the less, the softer. There is a lot of confusion between soft and oil pastel. Soft pastel is actually the oldest form of art medium–it’s what the cave men used!!! Oil pastel is much more recent. Thus, we who use soft pastel have a certain feeling longevity!!! Feel free to ask whatever you want.
Found the “finger painting” concept interesting. Food for thought.